Observed (points) and simulated (lines) evolution of shoot leaf area for long, medium and short shoots. Simulated values correspond to the simulated ‘Fuji’ 2 cultivar (4-year-old). Observed data were collected in Experiments 2 and 3 on 8- and 9-year-old ‘Fuji’ trees on medium and long shoots. Bars represent the standard error of observed values and dashed lines represent the standard error of simulated values. The inset graph represents changes in relative leaf area (ratio of the current leaf area to the final leaf area) for this same dataset.